Complex contest

The longlist has been announced for the £50,000 Warwick Prize, open not merely to both fiction and non-fiction titles, but to "substantial pieces of writing in the English language in any genre or form". The theme for the 2009 award is "Complexity". The 20 longlisted titles cover "politics, maths, economics, global warming, slavery, nature, music, science fiction and poetry". Among Jewish authors included are Lisa Appignanesi for Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800, Stuart Kauffman for Reinventing the Sacred, and Naomi Klein for The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. The shortlist for the prize (administered by Warwick University) will be announced on January 23.